Life
Interview with Indiana University Students
In this interview with Indiana University MBA and MsF students, I take a deep dive into my approach to investing.
My Interview with World Class Performer
In early 2021, I was interviewed by the website WorldClassPerformer.com. What follows are a series of questions about my background, influences and habits.
Go Ahead, Covet Your Neighbor’s Wife.
I recently asked another value investor if he wanted Warren Buffett's success. While this may seem like a rhetorical question, the truth is many value investors are quietly envious of Buffett.
Girls’ Gambit
It all started after my daughter, Hannah, watched The Queen’s Gambit for a homework assignment. She told me I had to watch it. I did, and loved it. But then Hannah said, “Dad, let’s play chess!”
Don’t Be a Sophist
I discuss how to use a Stoic technique to help manage the emotions that come with the stock market.
Why Did I Write a 27-page Letter To Clients
In these letters I diligently walk clients through our research on stocks we own, including those we have recently bought and sold. I cover how we value them, why we own them, etc.
A Shift in Perception Transforms Reality
2020 will go into our memory banks as a very painful year. Stoicism, particularly the stoic practice of negative visualization, helped me put 2020 into a broader historical context, and compare what happened, which was bad, to what could have happened.
One Spreadsheet at a Time
Recalling a teaching moment I had with my daughter Hannah, in which I got to share my love of spreadsheets and their usefulness.
Jonah Doing Jonah’s Thing
I describe the next adventure my son Jonah will have going to college from Hawaii.
Santa Fe: “Remember This”
Santa Fe and my family go way back to the early 90s. It all started with my father and my stepmother. My father had his paintings exhibited in a gallery on Santa Fe’s famous Canyon Road. A few times a year, they would load up paintings in a minivan and drive them to Santa Fe.
De-Numb Your Mind
I can definitely see how we are always trying to numb our minds. We constantly need the mental organ entertained and well-numbed with external stimuli. It seems that whenever we are left with ourselves, that is, with our minds, we reach out for our favorite portable numbing device and happily lose ourselves in Facebook, Twitter, Netflix, or YouTube. We spend little or no time with ourselves.
Rebuilding Good Habits after Lockdown
Though I loved working from home during the lockdown, I now realize that it came at a cost – in March and April I destroyed most of the good habits I had worked very hard to build over the last few years.
The Jet Lag Series: How do I work? When do I find time to write?
How do I work? When do I find time to write?I get asked this question a lot. People wonder when I have time to do research. Do I do research at all? Or do I have someone else do it for me?
The Jet Lag Series: There is no “I” in Hannah (But There are Two in “Vitaliy”)
Last summer Hannah started playing volleyball. She really fell in love with the game. She was one of the best players. Then the program director noticed Hannah’s play and told me that Hannah had “good hands” and suggested that we transfer her to a more advanced team of 15-year-olds (Hannah just turned 14). I instantly started calling her “good hands Hannah.”
The Jet Lag Series: Art or Craft
Severe repetition could turn an art into a craft – as our skill improves creative tension is reduced. Repetition may slowly drain the emotion out of each iteration. Craft and art are both components of creative activity, but art is the component that keeps us improving.
Set Your Egg Timer to 6 Months
If we had our egg timer set on six months, we’d prioritize what really matters: relationships, inhaling life, walking in the park. We’d reset what we care about, and it wouldn’t be things. We are given the rare opportunity to prioritize what is most important to us without guilt. The material world is on pause, at least for a few weeks.
The Jet Lag Series: Inhaling Europe
I was inhaling Europe on a trip to Switzerland and Italy with my brother Alex and my son Jonah. This was Jonah’s first time in Europe, and I really wanted him to love it as much as I do.
Daily Journal
I started keeping a daily journal to see how journaling will impact what I write about. Writing down important conversations I have may allow me to explore them further on my own.
Cultural Calendar
I listened to Tim Ferris’s interview with Neil Degrasse Tyson. There are a few insights that I got from this interview. You need to expose your kids to the world, so I set a day each month where I look ahead a month or two and plan our “cultural calendar”.
Broadening Our Horizons with Complexity
The Santa Fe Institute takes an interdisciplinary approach to research, and is a leader in complexity theory, which looks at the economy as an organic, ever-evolving ecosystem. How can I apply this theory to my own mental models
